HELP ! Laptop Battery Pack--How to Safely Remove Li-Ion Batteries ??

Batteries and Chargers Rechargeable Batteries
10

Fair enough. Just consider that the edge may be further away than you think :slight_smile:

As a tiny datapoint, I just checked the voltage on 18 Samsung 28Cs I got out of some of the $12 acer packs that I think have gotten a lot of us into battery pack butchery. These were all charged and capacity tested and charged again in an Opus charger 5-7 weeks ago. At the time, they all did well for capacity and internal resistance.

Since then, they have have been sitting in my cool basement. Two of the packs had all the cells at 2.5v or above. All of the cells are still incredibly close to 4.2v. One of the packs had a number of cells that were closer to 2.0 v when I pulled them. Most of those cells are sitting a little lower, but all but one is at or above 4.17v The the cell with the highest voltage is 4.19, and had a voltage of ~2.0v coming out of the pack. The final cell is resting at 4.11. I’ll probably discharge test them all again soon and then take them back to 3.7v for storage.

An abundance of caution is definitely warranted, and people should study the issue and reach their own conclusions. Just doing my part to avoid the waste of perfectly good battery meat.

11

I have been trying to figure out how to get into these
battery packs without having a big catastrophe here.
eas , travis , ruffles , Richwoudnt and downlinx thank
you all , for the input you have posted here. You, eas
have really put up a lot of info here on this posting.
I also did look at the video that OL posted. It showed
me some things. I still need a mountain of help for
me to work this out. Please keep the info /help coming.

I have just barely started on the Dell Type Y4367 .
I easily pulled off the label that was on it and then saw
9 red batteries partially covered by some plastic strips.
I cut through one side of the strips and bent them up
and kind of out of the way of the batteries . I stopped
there.—How to NOT short-out the batteries :quest:

12

Got a photo?

13

Photos would be good, but I’ve found that after you get the pack opened (one side of the case off), the batteries will generally be tied together with the tabs in sets, maybe pairs of batteries, or 3 together, or 4 together.

The thing is that when they’re all tied together, they kind of flap around, and that’s when there’s most risk of a short, so as soon as I can do so safely, I use a pair of scissors, or cutters, to cut metal strips (the tabs) so that the sets are away from each other, so for example, I’ll end up with 3 pairs where the 2 batteries in each pair are tied together with the tabs.

At that point, it’s a lot easier to avoid shorting anything, since 2 batteries in a pair won’t short and you can easily manage to keep all the pairs apart.

14

eas : No I haven’t taken any pics. Even if I had pics,
how do I post them ? What to do ? I need directions
from A to Z on how to post PICS and LINKS on BLF.

ohaya: I really have not opened the pack up enough,
to see the tabs ,wires , strips or whatever you call
them. I can see most of the batteries , but not where
the metal or wires meet onto + or - end of batteries.

15

https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/15452

16

Remember if you're cutting wires, one at a time, or the cutter will likely cause a short.

17

A: pull the sticker label off by putting a exacting knife under the label and pulling enough up to grab with needle nose pliers. Then cut the plastic flat bars(careful these can be sharp). You can now cut down one side of the plastic with some side cuts and cut along the bottom of the side you cut. You should be able partiallypulk out the battery pack and the cut the wires to the circuit board. you should be able to get the rest from there.
B, C, D: follow the steps of A

18

First, dittos to all that has been said, here and in the many (MANY!!!) other threads about harvesting 18650s from old laptop packs.

Much of the technique depends on what tools you have at hand.

For example, after you use your fingers to pull the label stickers from Dell packs, to where you can see the 18650s, you can cut that plastic “rib” that runs down the middle with dykes or break it off with pliers. Then you can use the pliers to grab the side edges of the plastic to pull & break them away from the batteries. Heavy pliers or those slip-joint angled-head pliers work best up to this point. At some point, the plastic will give up & let the batteries come out.

The flat steel strips that join the batteries need to be broken free, and needle-nose pliers work well for this step. I grab the strip close to the welds & roll it across the end of the battery. Working the welds back-&-forth helps if they’re solid enough to require a lot of force. Then a fine file, diamond sharpener, dremel wheel or other abrasive will get the sharp “nibs”, where the steel strips were welded on, off the ends.

For non-Dell packs, I’ve been very lucky to take my large slip-joint pliers & use them to gently crush the plastic at the ends, enough to show the seam. Then the flat-blade screwdriver can finish the split, although it’s hard not to touch a battery & that usually gets you a spark. Brief contact doesn’t seem to hurt much, although if I leave a “spark mark” or damage a wrapper, that 18650 goes to recycling. OR, you can grab & twist if your fore-arms & grip are strong enough.

PS: have you tried visiting your local PC/Laptop repair center for “dead” packs? That’s my only source, and I’m so flush with 18650s I will toss them for any reason or no reason, or just because I don’t like the wrapper color anymore. So far, there is an apparently inexhaustible source of “dead” packs, almost everywhere people live in groups…

Just my two cents worth of free advice…

Dim

19

I prefer to leave the strips on the anodes. Bend it away from the cell enough to cut it off smoothly then burnish it down with the curved side of the wire cutters. Give it a smooth top, cery slightly raised, without having to dremel.

20

I’m glad that technique works for you. I’ll caution others that I managed to dent half the cells in the Acer pack I tried a similar technique with.

21

I got the Dell Type Y4367 battery pack open. I just
folded back the 8 plastic ribs that I’d cut loose from
one side of the pack. After bending the ribs back, I
saw the 9 batteries +/- ends with metal tabs and a
long circuit board that was attached to the batteries.
I noticed that one corner of the pack had split open
part ways. That allowed me to just kinda peel the
plastic box totally away from around the batteries.
I cut the circuit board and two wires from batteries.
Took 9 Batteries with Red wraps and Blue + tops.
Wrap has no letters or #’s on the outside but some
text is slightly visible thru the red wrap covering.
The batts had been laying side by side , attached by
metal strips on the +/- sides while in battery pack.
I took a 3 pack of batteries loose from the 9 pack,
removed some tape , metal tabs and checked the
volts. Each battery of the 3 pack showed at 3.87
Volts on my multimeter. I have not done anything
with pack since then. Just trying to be slow but sure.
While cutting the batteries loose from the wires
and circuit board, a small spark popped up. I did a
little something wrong. What do you think about
this project so far ?—-Mike

22

Sounds like you’ve made good progress!

Those sound like Sanyo blue tops.

The spark was probably no big deal, but you should go back over things in your mind and think of how you could have avoided it. Somehow you had two things too close together.

23

You’re sure right about 2 things too close together.
Me and the battery pack ! :stuck_out_tongue: I was using the wire
cutters when the spark happened. I was cutting the
circuit board away from the batteries , but I can’t
figure out what I hit to cause the spark.The 2 small
wires had been cut. I’ll re-figure my moves.Your pics
and posts , along with everybody , have been very
helpful to me. Keep it coming ! Thanks :wink:

24

LOL! Good caveat!

I did say “VERY” lucky… And I’m glad you noticed the subtle ironicality of “gently crush”…

To me, seeing the seams makes it seem easy. That’s all “gently crush” is for. Put the pliers right at the end, find the seam, slip in a wide screwdriver or wood chisel & twist. Thinking about it, I’m not sure I leave tooth marks on the plastic with the pliers…

To be perfectly frank, I’m lucky to have enough strength in my hands and forearms that I can USUALLY simply twist most non-Dell packs enough to fail “enough” of the plastic-welds that I can grab a corner or edge with the Channel-Loks & just peel the plastic off. Yes, I get pinched a lot when I forget to wear gloves. And yes, it’s a dance between brute force and subtle finesse, but as Elwood said, “Whaddya want fer nothin?”

This is why I prefer Dell packs over all others (so far). Peel the sticker, rip out the rib, break the “bucket” back & the batteries pretty-much dump right out. When I try it, anyway… Plus Dell is far enough up the battery “food chain” that they load the best 18650s (year-for-year — later means better, of course) in their packs.

25

The steel buss strip is what causes the circuit through the 18650s. Once you start removing it, there is progressively less chance for that spark. But that strip is welded on to the ends, so until you break it loose, it’s = to whatever end(s) it’s attached to. E.g. in your 3S string you mentioned, that buss strip would give you 11.61V until you broke it loose!

The worst spark I ever made was trying to pry that strip off a ‘+’ end when I mashed through the plastic wrapper on the shoulder. It was still connected to make a 2 or 3S string! THAT was exciting!! Unfortunately for me, my Flush Cutters don’t really help, and they’re expensive to replace, which is why I roll the strip off with needle nosed pliers. I get to clean the nubs off regardless, so I just try to expedite the process of freeing the 18650s.

26

Remember, I said that I’m not mechanically inclined.
I also need help understanding some of the directions.
I have an idea what you mean when you speak about
a 2 or 3S strings. How to tell which one is 2 or 3S ?

27

If you look at a pack-full of batteries as they first pop out, you’ll notice by following the stainless steel buss strip, there are (e.g.) 3 end-to-end and 2 abreast. That’s 3S, 2P or 3 in Series, by 2 Parallel.

Total Voltage of the string is multiplied by the number of cells in Series, available Current is multiplied by the number in Parallel.

28

When I read this posting, I realize that I’m not as
smart as I thought ! I can’t understand what you’re
trying to tell me. Here’s what I saw when I opened
the Dell Y4367 battery pack. I saw 9 batteries laying
side by side in a 6.5 inch row on a tray.The 9 batts
were laying in this order : + - - - + ,if viewed
from one end of the batts. On this end of the batts,
there’s a 6.5 inch thin metal tab soldered ,with tape,
ONTO all 9 batteries. Looking from the other end of
the batteries , the view is in reverse: - - - + - - - .
This end the batteries didn’t have a continuous piece
of metal across the 9 like the other side .This side, if
I remember, had a metal tab soldered to 6 batteries
like + - - - and the other 3 batts had a tab to - - - ,
with the end to the circuit board. If I am correct ,tell
me what you think. What’s the meaning of ” in series”
“and in parallel” Remember, I’m not mechanically
inclined.

29

Thanks for the link